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ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics: Online-First Articles

The acquisition of L2 Hungarian grammar rules and the implicit-explicit debate

ORCID logo | KU Leuven
| KU Leuven

This study contributes to the explicit implicit debate by investigating to which extent adult learners of Hungarian develop knowledge of new grammar rules, and the proficiency to use them, through listening activities complemented with explicit grammar instruction or not.

In a quasi-experimental study, we compared the acquisition of three specific rules of Hungarian grammar by 80 Flemish adult students in two conditions. Both methods involved listening activities, but in one condition explicit rule explanation and practice was given and in the other one, meaningful activities were created without grammar explanation. The findings indicate that for teaching simple rules, compared to more complex grammar features, listening activities and exposure to comprehensible input have a significantly positive effect on grammar acquisition at the basic level. The explicit condition did not have an added beneficial effect. Exposure to L2 is the main driver of language development.

Keywords: listening activities, acquiring typologically distant language, explicit instruction, input flooding, teaching grammar
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • The explicit-implicit debate
    • Implicit grammar instruction
    • Simple vs complex grammar rules
    • Hungarian, the target language in this study
  • Research questions
  • Methodology
    • Study design
    • Participants
  • Materials
    • Target grammar rules
      • 1st rule: The use of van/vannak (the use of ‘is/are’)
      • 2nd rule: The use of definite and indefinite conjugation
      • 3rd rule: The combination of the preverbs fel-/le- (‘upwards/downwards’) with the suffixes -ra/-re (‘towards’) and -ról/-ről (‘from’)
    • Input flooding
    • Tests
      • Grammaticality judgement test (GJT): Did the participants notice the new rule?
      • Fill-in-the-gap task
      • Writing task
    • Pilot study
    • Procedure
    • Timing
    • Statistical analysis
  • Results
    • RQ1.Does providing language input via listening activities contribute to the acquisition of unfamiliar Hungarian grammar rules?
      • 1st rule: The use of van/vannak (the use of ‘is/are’)
      • 2nd rule: The use of definite and indefinite conjugation
      • 3rd rule: The combination of the preverbs fel-/le- (‘upwards/downwards’) with the suffixes -ra/-re (‘towards’) and -ról/-ről (‘from’)
    • RQ2.Does additional explicit rule explanation help in mastering the rules?
      • 1st rule: The use of van/vannak (the use of ‘is/are’)
      • 2nd rule: The use of definite and indefinite conjugation
      • 3rd rule: The combination of the preverbs fel-/le- (‘upwards/downwards’) with the suffixes -ra/-re (‘towards’) and -ról/-ről (‘from’)
  • Discussion
    • Does providing language input via listening activities contribute to the acquisition of unfamiliar grammar rules (RQ1)?
    • Does additional explicit rule explanation help in mastering the rules (RQ2)?
    • The effect of prior knowledge
    • Limitations
    • Pedagogical implications
  • Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 13 December 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.21038.ger
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